Top all-time · #5794
Yasha Levine
Personal blog · yasha.substack.compoliticssecurity
Yasha Levine writes NEFARIOUS RUSSIANS, a personal blog at yasha.substack.com about politics and security. Since 2019, 14 different Hacker News readers have linked it 17 times, most often “Signal Is a Government Op”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-29, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (6) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN commenters link Yasha Levine's Substack posts, mainly the one arguing Signal is a government operation, as support for claims that Signal is CIA-funded. One commenter praises his book Surveillance Valley.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 6 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
A newsletter and a bedtime podcast attached. We are from your future.
Most-linked posts?
- Signal Is a Government Op4 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2021-01-17
- Signal is a government op (2021)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-01-29
What Hacker News says?
Signal (Open Whispers) is likely CIA funded. It's like TOR (made by the Navy/DARPA): make something that works so your own operatives can hide behind it too https://www.kitklarenberg.com/p/signal-facing-collapse-after... https://yasha.substack.com/p/signal-is-a-government-op-85e https://bigleaguepolitics.com/court-docs-show-fbi-can-interc...
Comment linking /p/signal-is-a-government-op-85e
on “F-Droid and Google’s developer registration decree”Submitted Signal Is a Government Op as a story · 57 points
HN discussionSignal is likely funded by the CIA and other intelligence actors: https://yasha.substack.com/p/signal-is-a-government-op-85e https://www.kitklarenberg.com/p/signal-facing-collapse-after... https://www.city-journal.org/article/signals-katherine-maher... https://drewdevault.com/2018/08/08/Signal.html https://bigleaguepolitics.com/court-docs-show-fbi-can-interc...
Comment linking /p/signal-is-a-government-op-85e
on “0-click deanonymization attack targeting Signal, Discord, other platforms”Submitted Signal Is a Government Op as a story · 11 points
HN discussionSignal was likely funded by State. Open Whisper Systems has a lot of shady connections: https://www.kitklarenberg.com/p/signal-facing-collapse-after... https://yasha.substack.com/p/signal-is-a-government-op-85e https://bigleaguepolitics.com/court-docs-show-fbi-can-interc... https://drewdevault.com/2018/08/08/Signal.html https://www.city-journal.org/article/signals-katherine-maher...
Comment linking /p/signal-is-a-government-op-85e
on “Microsoft is killing Skype”Submitted Signal Is a Government Op as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI find it extremely suspicious, and have pointed it out to others before, that the Signal developers refuse to distribute it without Google Play services (spyware). Coupled with its CIA funding background, I'm glad I've used it. https://yasha.substack.com/p/signal-is-a-government-op
Comment linking /p/signal-is-a-government-op
on “Wire is now on F-Droid”Submitted Spy-funded Signal and Tor not going to protect you from the government (2016) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionyes. That's the nature of war. Just like general disinformation and the campaign to support the poor Ukrainians roasting devious Russian in their tanks (while taking 0 losses of course!) and painting the heroic image of a people waging urban warfare defending (read: destroying beyond recognition) their country to the last drop of blood. Some further reading: https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1498490752065757184 https…
Comment linking /p/insurgency
on “Vladimir Putin is pushing Russia into past: Maybe a generation, maybe a century”Submitted Yasha Levine's Twitter account locked after tweet criticising US foreign policy as a story · 3 points
HN discussionOne of the people involved in the film this is related to (Pistachio Wars) is Yasha Levine, whose book about the history of the Internet, Surveillance Valley, is excellent (if controversial!). Background on the film: https://yasha.substack.com/p/pistachio-wars-the-back-story-5... Surveillance Valley: http://yashalevine.com/surveillance-valley
Comment linking /p/pistachio-wars-the-back-story-571
on “Pistachio Billionaires Accused of Artwashing California's Water Crisis”Submitted Signal is a government op (2021) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Rebranding Counterinsurgency (Utopia and Privatization) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Shahid Buttar, the Cheesy Silicon Valley Astroturfer Challenging Nancy Pelosi as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Silicon Valley and “communication weapons of war” as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Changemaker: A mockumentary send-up of indie documentary filmmakers as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Respectable Racism as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
